


Nail Polish

by TestyCanadian



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Cute Boys Doing Cute Things, Fluff, Gen, M/M, Nail Polish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-11
Updated: 2015-03-11
Packaged: 2018-03-17 08:43:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3522851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TestyCanadian/pseuds/TestyCanadian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Somehow the Seigaku/Shitenhouji joint training camp turned into a nail painting party.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nail Polish

Ryoma’s eye twitched. He had expected some irritation to happen when he had found out about the joint training camp with Shitenhouji but this particular annoyance was completely unexpected. The two teams were staying at the same inn and had been getting along as well as could be expected. Dinner had been a noisy affair and the large group of boys had been debating about what to do to kill some time before bed. Ryoma had decided to ignore it for the most part until Koharu pulled out a surprisingly large bag of nail polish from his equally surprisingly large suitcase.

The Shitenhouji team was all for trying it out and had somehow convinced the Seigaku regulars that it was a good idea. So now Ryoma sat in the corner of the room watching his senpai and the Osaka tennis players paint each other’s nails a myriad of colors. His eye twitched again. It seemed to being that a lot today. He could feel his frustration bleeding through to his face but he was determined to keep it to himself. That was until one particular interruption he couldn’t ignore jumped into his personal space.

“Koshimae! Look!” Kintarou yelled, thrusting his still wet fingers into Ryoma’s face, “Aren’t they pretty?!” Kintarou’s fingers were practically dripping with all the neon green paint that was voraciously slathered on them. Whoever had done them hadn’t paid much attention to painting inside the lines either because the super rookie had paint all the way down to his first knuckle and even some down around his fingertips. Ryoma grimaced.

“Yeah they’re pretty bad,” Ryoma grumbled, “Who did them they’re awful,” Ryoma almost immediately regret his words as Kintarou’s face drooped like a puppy that had just been kicked by its favorite person. Ryoma was about to apologize when an angry “Hey” was shouted in his direction.

“You got a problem with my work shorty?” Kenya shouted from his spot trying to paint Oishi’s nails.

“Yeah you suck,” Ryoma responded, deadpan. Kenya steamed at that.

“Well see you do a better job!” Ryoma was going to ignore him but one more look at Kintarou’s sad face and he caved. He gave a long suffering sigh and got up from his seat on the floor. He shuffled over to the bag of nail supplies and began to ruffle through it.

“Oi Tooyama,” He called to the sulking boy, “What color do you want?” Kintarou shot a like a rocket, glee practically exploding out of him.

“Koshimae is going to paint my nails?!” He squealed, “I want green and yellow! Oh and blue and orange and red and pink and—“

“Green! You’re getting green. I heard green first.” Ryoma said, pulling out a cooler shade of green than was currently on the excited boy’s hands. “Get over here and for the love of god try to sit still” Kintarou rushed to his side and plopped himself down right at Ryoma’s feet. Ryoma was again found himself thinking of a puppy as he pulled the polish remover and a wad of paper towels out of the bag.

Ryoma splashed some of the remover on the wad of paper and began to scrub at Kintarou’s bright green fingers while the other boy practically preened at the attention. Ryoma had to scrub extra hard just because of the sheer amount of paint but eventually Kintarou’s hands were clean. Ryoma then proceeded to paint the other boy’s fingers. He manipulated the brush over each nail with steady practiced strokes. He was very careful to stay within the lines of each nail and made sure there would be no smudging or brush marks in the finish. He finished one hand and held it up, bent at the wrist, to Kintarou’s face.

“Blow,” he stated. Kintarou seemed to shake himself out of a trance and stared at Ryoma uncomprehendingly for a moment. Then he nodded eagerly and sucked in a big breath. “Blow gently,” Ryoma sighed. Kintarou nodded and Ryoma moved on to the other hand. This one he also finished with a perfect practiced ease. Kintarou had finished drying his first set of nails and started to eagerly blow on the second. Ryoma looked at the now dry green nails and thought they looked a little bland. Certainly he could do better than that. He reached into the bag and grabbed a dark yellow paint and set about putting a diagonal line through the center of each nail. Kintarou looked at him in wonder but Ryoma barely noticed it. After commanding Kintarou to blow on the now striped nails, he began to rummage through the bag of nail polish once more. He had to dig all the way to the bottom to find what he was looking for. He brought out the gold polish pen with a satisfied smirk and eagerly grabbed Kintarou’s hands again. He carefully drew the square design of the Shitenhouji uniform in the center of each nail. After inspecting his work he leaned back with an arrogant smirk but it was quickly dropped when he saw that he had attracted a crowd.

Nearly every member of the two teams had circled around the two youngest to see just what Ryoma ws doing. There was a mixture of confused and questioning looks pointed his way and Ryoma found himself wishing for his cap to pull over his face.

“WOOOOWW!!!” Kintarou exclaimed, thrusting his hands into the air, “Wow Koshimae is amazing! Look Shiraishi look! How did you do it Koshimae?! You must be a super nail wizard! That’s the only explanation!”

“No!” Ryoma huffed, blush blooming across his cheeks, “I just had some practice before. My elementary school in America had a coed tennis team; you pick up a few things on the bus,” This earned him some leers and chuckles from his senpai. Ryoma’s blush deepened and he mumbled something about getting a ponta before hurrying out of the room. He stayed out of the other boys’ ways for the rest of the night until it was time for bed. He was just turning in to the room Seigaku was using when he was practically tossed to the ground by a weight dropping on to his back. He felt arms wind themselves around his middle and a face rub itself into his back.

“Thank you so much Koshimae,” He heard Kintarou say in a surprisingly soft voice, “I really really like them! You’re amazing!” Ryoma’s pulse jumped and heat blossomed across his face.

“Whatever,” Ryoma said, voice tight, “It isn’t a big deal, but don’t expect me to do it again okay? It was a one-time thing,” Kintarou giggled into Ryoma’s shoulder and Ryoma felt heat blooming in more than just his face. He pulled out of Kintarou’s hold and rushed to his sleeping bag, quickly throwing the covers over his head and intent on forgetting everything from that night.

His determination to forget didn’t stop him from fixing Kintarou’s nails every day after practice for rest of the training camp though, much to Kintarou’s delight.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is based off my own experience on a middle school tennis team.


End file.
